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| 1 | +# Title |
| 2 | + |
| 3 | +WoCCode: Peer mentoring for the Women of Color coding community |
| 4 | + |
| 5 | +## Summary |
| 6 | + |
| 7 | +Women of Color (WoC) -- which includes Black, indigenous, and Latinx |
| 8 | +minorities -- are the most underrepresented demographic from high |
| 9 | +paying industries, including software engineering. Yet WoC are flush |
| 10 | +with the talent, creativity, and social insight to solve complex |
| 11 | +problems and lead in the software industry. This program seeks to |
| 12 | +unite WoC and other members of minoritized groups, to battle feelings |
| 13 | +of isolation and marginalization that are prevalent in educational |
| 14 | +institutions and industry settings. Using a dedicated Slack space and |
| 15 | +cohorts of 4-5 people, we will create a peer mentoring network for WoC |
| 16 | +and members of other minoritized groups to engage, receive feedback, |
| 17 | +and troubleshoot issues around their participation in open source |
| 18 | +software communities, including Astropy. |
| 19 | + |
| 20 | +## Team |
| 21 | + |
| 22 | +Program Lead: Lia Corrales (@eblur) |
| 23 | + |
| 24 | +Program Mentors and Slack moderators: |
| 25 | +* Lia Corrales |
| 26 | +* Kelle Cruz |
| 27 | +* TBD (invited Camille Avestruz) |
| 28 | + |
| 29 | +Anticipated 2020 cohort: 20 people from underrepresented groups in the |
| 30 | +United States (Black, indigenous, disabled, and gender-minority |
| 31 | +coders) or other underrepresented groups from the national stage (see |
| 32 | +Plan). We are open to any career stage, from undergraduate to research |
| 33 | +professionals. |
| 34 | + |
| 35 | +Guest webinar speakers: 6 industry or research professionals |
| 36 | + |
| 37 | +## Plan |
| 38 | + |
| 39 | +We will solicit applications to join the program via Twitter, AAS |
| 40 | +CSMA, and by emails to academic department chairs. We will accept |
| 41 | +applications from anyone, and will select a cohort in a way that |
| 42 | +prioritizes most marginalized demographics. |
| 43 | + |
| 44 | +We operate under the principle that supporting the most marginalized |
| 45 | +in our communities supports the well-being of all members of the |
| 46 | +Astropy community. This program seeks to engage with people from |
| 47 | +groups that are marginalized in the United States, the Global South |
| 48 | +(Central America, Latin America, Africa, and less-privileged classes |
| 49 | +of Southeast Asia), or Global North (European, Northern Asia, |
| 50 | +Australian) members from marginalized demographics such as being |
| 51 | +indigenous, non-binary or queer, and disabled. |
| 52 | + |
| 53 | +We aim for 20 participants, to be separated into cohorts of 4-5 people |
| 54 | +with similar interests. |
| 55 | + |
| 56 | +Participants will be connected via Slack, with one channel for each |
| 57 | +cohort and a general chat channel. Slack moderators will be assigned |
| 58 | +to moderate cohort chat spaces to help answer technical questions |
| 59 | +regarding code. Each cohort is expected to hold regular meetings, 2-4 |
| 60 | +times per month, for peer-mentoring. (These sessions should be |
| 61 | +independent of Slack and will not include the Slack moderator assigned |
| 62 | +to them.) |
| 63 | + |
| 64 | +There will be one webinar scheduled per month. Similar to "code |
| 65 | +coffee" chats organized by the Program Lead at MIT, partipants will |
| 66 | +present a new tool, piece of code, or professional development |
| 67 | +practice. The webinars will toggle between peer-led webinars and a |
| 68 | +guest speaker from outside the program. Guest speakers will be |
| 69 | +professionals from underrepresented backgrounds, in either the |
| 70 | +software industry or academia. |
| 71 | + |
| 72 | +Some examples of guest speakers from underrepresented groups, who will |
| 73 | +be invited to give a webinar, are: |
| 74 | +* Nicholas Hunt-Walker (Senior Software Engineer at Verica) |
| 75 | +* Duane Lee (Customer Support Engineer at Starburst Data) |
| 76 | +* Rudolfo Montez (Data Carpentry instructor) |
| 77 | + |
| 78 | +## Impact |
| 79 | + |
| 80 | +Through peer mentoring, we will create a safe space for participants |
| 81 | +to experiment with their code and to engage in open software |
| 82 | +practices. They will be introduced to coding practices and |
| 83 | +professional development during the monthly webinars. Additionally, |
| 84 | +they will learn the stories of the guest speakers who are members of |
| 85 | +minoritized groups that have created spaces for themselves in industry |
| 86 | +and research, and could also serve as role models for participants in |
| 87 | +earlier career stages. This all serves to equip participants with the |
| 88 | +foundational skills and social network to function in majority-white |
| 89 | +open source software spaces, giving them the opportunity to contribute |
| 90 | +more effectively to the Astropy code base and community. |
| 91 | + |
| 92 | + |
| 93 | +## Budget |
| 94 | + |
| 95 | +When possible, and based on the rules and regulations of their |
| 96 | +employers, WoCCode participants will be compensated with an |
| 97 | +honararium. If compensation is not possible, participants may |
| 98 | +volunteer their time to WoCCode. The budget summary below assumes that |
| 99 | +all participants will be able to receive money, to arrive at the |
| 100 | +maximum possible cost for the program. |
| 101 | + |
| 102 | +Slack moderators will receive an honorarium of $500, for their work in |
| 103 | +moderating the Slack forums, answering questions, and arranging for |
| 104 | +guest speakers. |
| 105 | + |
| 106 | +It has been well documented that members of underrepresented groups |
| 107 | +typically earn less money than white and cis-male counterparts with |
| 108 | +similar employment. Hispanic women receive on average 54 cents per |
| 109 | +dollar earned by white men, Black women receive 62 cents per dollar, |
| 110 | +and white women receive 79 cents per dollar ([click here for |
| 111 | +source](https://www.nationalpartnership.org/our-work/resources/economic-justice/fair-pay/quantifying-americas-gender-wage-gap.pdf)). As |
| 112 | +such, monetary compensation is one of the most important ways to |
| 113 | +support underrepresented groups in our fields. For engagement in the |
| 114 | +program, participants will receive a $200 honorarium. |
| 115 | + |
| 116 | +Guest speakers will receive an honararium of $300 for a one-hour |
| 117 | +webinar given to the program participants. This is based on the |
| 118 | +industry standard of $150 per hour compensation, anticipating a total |
| 119 | +of two hours for preparing and giving the webinar talk. |
| 120 | + |
| 121 | +We also request $2000 in discretionary funds. This money will be used |
| 122 | +to pay additional speakers, moderators, or program participants. This |
| 123 | +need arises from the simple fact that we may find more than 20 |
| 124 | +participants from ideal situations, or if we need more moderators. We |
| 125 | +also wish to dedicate the discretionary funds towards advertising the |
| 126 | +program, or for supporting a participant who may be in need. The funds |
| 127 | +could be used, for example, to support a participant's travel (or |
| 128 | +remote conference registration fee) to present work related to the |
| 129 | +WoCCode program. |
| 130 | + |
| 131 | +Budget outline: |
| 132 | +* $200 x 20 = $2,400 in participant honorariums |
| 133 | +* $500 x 3 = $1,500 in Slack moderator honorariums |
| 134 | +* $300 x 6 = $1,800 in guest webinar speaker compensation |
| 135 | +* $2,000 in discretionary funds |
| 136 | +* Total request: $7,700 |
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